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Red Barn to hold fundraiser for family of woman killed in Arizona crash

Funds will go to woman's fiancé and children

By Christine Steele

csteele@scsun-news.comon Twitter @SCSunNews

Posted:
08/19/2013 05:08:51 PM MDT

SILVER CITY >> Employees at the Red Barn Steakhouse in Silver City are rallying to support one of their own after the man's fiancé was killed in a crash in Arizona, leaving behind six small children.

Rudy Sias, a manager at the Red Barn, helped organize the pancake breakfast fundraiser to be held from 7 to 11 a.m. Wednesday to benefit Joey Morgan, the fiancé of Rosa Ortiz, the 28-year-old Tyrone woman who was killed on Aug. 12 in a rollover crash on I-10 in Arizona. Morgan is the kitchen manager at the Red Barn, Sias said, and has been working at the restaurant for the past seven years. He and Ortiz had been a couple for the past eight years and have two children together.

"He has two children with her and she had four, and he has raised them all like they are his own," Sias said. "He has been taking this really hard and is taking some leave time right now."

Sias started a donation account among the employees at the restaurant and said anyone interested in contributing can drop donations off at the restaurant.

"It's for the kids and to help him out at this time," Sias said. "He's a really good person. He's been part of the family at the Red Barn for a long time."

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Ortiz was the only person killed in the crash, which occurred around 7:30 a.m. on August 10 at mile marker 219 on I-10 near Picacho Peak, in Arizona, outside of Phoenix. She was driving an eight-passenger mini-van with a total of 13 people on board, most of them children, when a rear tire blew out and caused the van to crash into the median and then roll. Neither Ortiz, nor none of the 12 passengers were wearing seat belts, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Public Safety said. Ortiz was ejected from the vehicle and died. The passengers in the car ranged from eight months to 24 years old and received varying degrees of injuries, none life-threatening. Two Silver City area personalities have helped promote the event on Facebook, Levi "Krown Royal" Carroll, a rap artist who now lives in Idaho, and D.J. Milligram aka Mario Garcia. Carroll bought three breakfasts to give away to three local people who shared the status on Facebook. Ortiz was his daughter's aunt, he said. And Garcia posted that he was going to double Carroll's contributions and give away six free breakfasts - four on KNUW the Mixx 95.1 with Maui en la Manana, for his question of the day at 7:30 a.m. today and Wednesday, and two on the Sun-News Facebook today so check the Sun-News Facebook for details. Frank Carbajal, kitchen manager at the Drifter, volunteered his time and will be cooking up the pancakes on Wednesday.

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